Tales from the Other Side of Damien

Imagine waking up to yourself one day, and finding out that you have no idea of what you did the previous hours, or days, or even weeks. This was one of those times, when I awoke to find myself in yet another unfamiliar dungeon, with yet another group of people I vaguely remember.

Dammit! I was promised by the apothecary I last saw that this wouldn't happen, that I would remain me, the lucid one, and I wouldn't go on those damn weird moments when I wouldn't remember anything at all....and wake up in some weird situation, in some weird dungeon, with some weird group of people doing some undoubtly dangerous acts...but I digress.

This time wasn't so bad though...I do remember these people faintly....a short gnome, a fat dwarf, some singing lady, a fairly timid barby, and a paladin, who's fearless, brave, and not very smart..but that's par for course from all the pally's I've ever met. I think there was another person of non-descript race...I don't quite remember..and of course me. At least, from the fact that a paladin was around, it meant that these folks were good aligned...and I wouldn't have to fear for my life...but I do wonder why I always end up with the goody two shoes.

We were in a state of rest, apparently having vanquished some foes before this period of lucidity struck me. I must have been involved as I found myself short on memorized spells, a bunch of cantrips, some magic missles, a lightning bolt and...what is this....Bigby's Interposing Hand??? What the hack was I on to have memorized that??? I made another mental note to have very strong words with the apothecary when we returned. There must be some brew or potion that can solve these out of mind experiences.

Anyhow, the group decided it was a good time to head back to Ptolus, and I liked the suggestion enough to follow along....the group put me in the middle as befitting someone of great import as me and we went along out of the dungeon. As we reached a room, our party was semi-split up as some of us went into the room, and some of us were still outside the room.

Imagine my surprise when I sensed powerful magicks in the air...I could feel as if someone was probing on us..yes! definitely a scry! "Everyone! We're getting scryed!!"....I yelled. It was too late however, as the door dividing our party slammed shut. Our paladin started beating on it with his electrical longsword while on the other side, we could hear them tell us nothing bad was happening to them yet. The fat dwarven cleric said something to the affect that he could feel magic in the air. I mostly sat and watched the paladin wail on the door until the barbarian decided to take a step up and maul on it. One maul later, the door crashed down. "See Mr. Paladin, you really should take your iron rations in the morning..." I mentioned in passing....moving into the room, I borrowed the singing lady's wand of detect magic, and detected no magic....I was wondering what was going on...but didn't worry too much of it.

We moved along out of the dungeon again, but didn't move too far before we reached yet another room with two people in it....and they were asking for help. Immediately suspiciuos, I asked the paladin to sense if they were malovelent of intent....seconds passed and immediately certain party members said "They're lying! They're not asking for help!" The paladin confirmed moments later that they were indeed evil.

Before anyone else could move, I conjured up big black strong tentacles that would hold and bind them. I figured we could either interrogate or skewer them at our leisure if they were immobilized. It didn't take long before I found out that the party liked evil people dead as the short teeny gnome started skewering them. Magic missles flew left and right and the melee'ers carefully stayed out of my tentacles. I threw a ray of enfeeblement onto the stronger of the duo and was suitably pleased to see his shocked expression as he realizes that his strength is sapped.

It didn't take long for us to take the female of the duo down, but the male somehow managed to escape by turning himself into oooze...our pally pursued and found the ooze had somehow turned into a gigantic creature weilding a very big axe. I expanded the last spell of any use I have, aiding the party in taking down the creature via lightning.

Down it went, and we found several bunches of loot. We made our way out of the dungeon, by which time I was told it was the Banewarrens...I made a mental note to make more reserach of this place when we were at a safer locale.

Finally reaching Ptolus, I was bugged by the Gnome that I had to teleport him to his Gnome city....A bit shocked that I had promised such a thing, I reviewed my spells and found that I DO have a teleport waiting..including a detailed location....thankfully the rest of the party members did not know that I am just hastily memroizing the location...and teleported the gnome, the singing half-elf, the paladin, and myself to that location. Thankfully we got there safely.

Upon reaching the gnome city, they seemed to treat the gnome like some sort of hero...I guess even if you're a short weakling halfling relative, you can be a hero to the right race...

But I certainly can't complain of the 1000 pieces of platinum that they rewarded us with! The half-elven lady swiped everyone's loot though, and started doing accounting. She would later give me my fair share. Fortunately I'm not one to complain overly much of money...

Amongst the loot we found was a scroll I found interesting..the cone of cold....it can't be worse than bigby's interposing hand i thought and offered to take it from the party..scribing the spell in my spellbook was very easy and there was little problems there. The half-elf also bought me a scroll of eagle splendor, and I stared at it rather suspiciously wondering why she would buy it for me..was it a hint? That I wasn't charismatic enough?

Her motives soon came clear to me...."I want you to craft me a cloak of greater eagle splendor" she said...."what? why would i do such a thing?" I replied. "Because you said you would last time! I even have an IOU from you!" She produced the note which did not look anything like my handwriting....or what I know of as my handwriting. But I've been known to promise weird things when my other personalities have emerged...and...I wouldn't be surprised if those others would write like a half-elven lady would. Not wishing to seem like a poor party member, I crafted it for her, at rather great expense at myself. Whilst crafting that, I decided to improve my necklace of intellect, allowing me a few more spells to memorize. As part of her payment for the cloak, she did give me a magical crossbow, of which I was sorely needing one. No self-respecting wizard meandering in the dungeons should be without a ranged weapon I say!

Finally the party was ready. I outfitted my memory with spells far more useful than I found myself with at the beginning of this adventure, and the party entered the banewarrens once more. We decided to take paths untrodden by us and it wasn't long before adventure befell us.

First the gnmoish thief forgot to search the area before a door we were contemplating...and him and the paladin were besot on by falling dust....the gnome required help from the cleric before he could recover enough to continue working on the trap. Opening the door protected by this trap revealed a corridor...where lightning bolts would sparkle and travese the entire corridor once every 12 seconds. The party wisely agreed to leave this door for another day.

Checking out another door, I sensed a magical orb that the paladin later confirmed was evil. We warned everyone suitably, and the thief slowly made his way inside the room, making sure everything was untrapped. Halfway through the room, a great xorn appeared! Immediately I fired off my greater ray of enfeeblement, hoping to make the creature ineffectual. Alas, even though I reached it with the ray, the effects were rather disappointing. It was weakened, but still more than strong enough to rend our party apart were we not careful.

The Paladin and Barbarian reached to engage the creature, and the half-elven lady broke into song...ahh..a bard I noticed....magic missles fell onto the creature and both sides began taking their toll on the other. I aided our side of the battle by hasting everyone, giving everyone an extra step to their actions.

Unexpected pain then shot through my side..as I realized I had been stabbed in the back...I saw a most dastardly female form garbed in the form of a rouge with my blood on her daggers...fumbling out of her reach, i was enraged and threw off my most powerful fireball at her, and her minions, though I did not notice her minions at the time. I simply wanted to blast her into oblivion for such a villiany deed. The fireball exploded amongst their midst and affected them horribly. The villianess was badly damaged, enough that her system was put into check, and one of her werewolf minions was roasted to cinders. Off in the background, I could hear the victorious bellows of our barbarian, hopefully indicating that the xorn is now no longer on this plane of existence....One of our party members drew his sword to engage the villianess, but before he could do much more than swing at her, she dimension doored to safety. The bitch!

Our party members then dispatched the last minion easily, and without much regard for his own safety, the still hasted barbarian ran after the villianess, with his only directions "Towards the exit!" given by the other party members. The hasted members of the party gave chase, myself included and soon came upon the dismembered corpse of the villianess. Apparently the barbarian had caught the villianess and had chopped her head off, among other things, with one great swing!

Victorious! We were elated! With my blood pumping through my veins so quickly, I could feel it, and could not help it, as I can feel my personality slip away into that oblivion that I might not emerge from again....

"...No..." I whispered before all fell dark around me. I prayed I would emerge once more and not some more dastardly personality.